Wall-to-wall sunshine!

We’ve had a glorious day here in the Hebrides – pretty much wall-to-wall sunshine, and pretty warm too – MrEh has had shorts on! (Yes, those of you that know him are aware that this is not so unusual, but up here? Not so often….)

We’d not really decided exactly what we wanted to do today – just that we were heading south, down to South Uist. We were quite late getting going too, as we accidentally went back to sleep and didn’t get up until nearly 10am – oops! Once we got out though we ambled down through the islands, stopping in a few of our favourite spots to see what birds were about. We spotted a mystery raptor at one stage – we’re still not sure what it is as it doesn’t quite meet the description for ANY of the likely candidates. (Hen Harrier, Buzzard or Marsh Harrier – since you asked). Mostly though today has been about flowers – thanks to the mild winter everything here is quite a long way ahead of where we’ve seen it before – we spotted this beautiful patch of machair yesterday…

…and even the Yellow Flag Iris – which we’ve only ever just seen the start of flowering in the last few days of our visit is already showing its face all over the place. Fingers crossed it will be fully out while we’re here and you’ll get some pictures of that too!

First stop today was down at Lochboisdale where the new ferry terminal development is coming along well – they’ve got all the roads linking the small islands which will be used for access in place, and the services are going in – presumably the next stage will be the groundworks for the actual terminal itself.  Also coming along well is the little community garden we spotted last year – it’s filled out wonderfully and the chives are in full flower…

…Gorgeous, eh?  From there we drove on South to one of our favourite spots – South Glendale. Always good for an interesting bird or two, and although we saw nothing THAT unusual this time (A Goldfinch, mind you, which is our first time seeing one of those over here) there was still a pretty Willow Warbler…

…and this seriously greedy Blackbird!

From there on to Eriskay – the Southernmost island in this part of the chain, and one of 6 linked together by causeway in the middle of the Hebrides – Berneray, North Uist, Grimsay, Benbecula, South Uist and finally Eriskay. It’s a lovely Island, and home to the native Eriskay Pony, although we didn’t see any this time. We did climb a hill though and see this view…

…which is the opposite of the view we saw last year when we climbed the hill in the very background of that picture and looked back across Eriskay to Barra beyond.  We also saw this rather lovely Orchid…

A Heath Spotted orchid we think – although hopefully Fay might be able to confirm or correct! Orchids here are tricky as not only do they get Heath Spotted, and Northern Marsh Orchids quite prolifically, there are also several Hebridean varieties specific to these islands, and then things are complicated still further by the fact that there are hybrids of the various types too! Mosses and lichens are also prolific here and you often get masses of different types in a tiny area – like this...

…to give you an idea, I could span that area with my hand, fingers spread –amazing eh? There is at least 6, and probably more, plant species co-existing quite happily in that tiny area!  Mind you we were quite happy out there at well – the only sounds birdsong and the drone of the ferry as she made her way across the Sound of Barra back to Eriskay, and this view…

…Not so bad, is it?!

Robyn

Ps – I’ve just gone outside to post this – the signal in the cottage is tricky as the walls are 2’ thick – there is no broadband signal in the world that likes that! It’s still not only light enough to easily see what I’m doing, I could easily read a book if I was so minded – and it’s very nearly 10.30pm!

Hebrides Countdown...

It's MrEH providing the inspiration this week for our countdown, as I asked him to come up with the subject matter. "A Walk!" he said - leaving me a little exasperated, truth be told. "Yes, but anywhere specific?" I asked. After a bit of thought he said - as I suspected he might - "South Glendale".

South Glendale can be found at the Southern end of South Uist. There are two cracking walks from here - the first, across to North Glendale, gives great views over Lochboisdale - we've eaten lunch up there many times, watching the comings and going at the ferry terminal and just people going about their business. The second involves a hill (as a lot of our Hebrides walks seem to) and this view...

...that's the bottom of South Uist, the Causeway and almost the whole of the Island of Eriskay you can see there, and a view like that is always well worth the scramble to get to it! We quite fancy the idea of doing both of those walks again this year, and looking at the map there is a chance we might be able to do them together too - coming back from North Glendale via the hill.

Lots more planning and chatting about walks we'd like to do going on here too at the moment - with all the walking I've been doing I feel a lot more enthusiastic about it too!

Robyn

Abandoned...

The cottage above is at South Glendale, South Uist. All over the place here there are these homes which have just been left to decay - many of them seemingly still in very good condition at the point at which the owners moved on. In a lot of cases you can see "house history" - the ruins of an old blackhouse, next to that a more modern whitehouse, then a 1920's - 1950's style building, then in many cases a more modern bungalow or "one and a half storey" house. See above for a good example of one of the above - it's peculiar mainly to Scotland I think. This is another case of a subject telling me what treatment it wanted - (Nick, I thought you might enjoy this one as I know you like your mono shots!) although the corrugated iron roof was once painted in red most of the colour has flaked away leaving very little colour in the building itself. 

At the point of taking this shot I had quite startlingly wet feet - on the walk we had just completed I had managed to go into a peat-bog up to the knees, and the problem with very waterproof walking boots is their reluctance to let water out, once it has got in. Squelch. My boots are now sitting in the kitchen drying........

Robyn